Chandelier
Jonathan Collett
Category
Glass
Date
1771 - 1773
Materials
Glass and metal.
Order this imageCollection
Bath Assembly Rooms, Somerset
NT 67132
Summary
Cut glass chandelier, designed by Jonathan Collett in 1771. Originally made to hand in the Ball Room, was removed in 1771 to hang in the Great Octagon. Collett originally quoted (in August 1771) £400 for the 5 chandeliers but was eventually paid £100 guineas in 1773 for this one chandelier. Converted for electricity. [A] On opening night in September 1771 one of the branches of one of the five chandeliers in the Ball Room failed and dropped onto the crowds below. It supposedly narrowly missed the painter Thomas Gainsborough. The Managing Committee issues a statement saying they were looking into it and making everything safe. What ensued was a drawn-out process with the threat of litigation between the Committee Member and the chandelier’s maker Jonathan Collett of London. The result was that his chandeliers were removed from the Ball Room and the “Chandelier of Forty-Eight Arms” was retained and refitted to hang in the Octagon Room – which it does still now. William Parker of London, who supplied the three for the Tea Room, was commissioned to replace the five in the Ball Room.
Makers and roles
Jonathan Collett